Arjen Paardekooper

Languages

Dutch, English, German, French

Business lawyer | Acquisitions specialist | Expert in shareholder disputes | Experienced adviser to commissioners and supervisors
About Arjen

Arjen Paardekooper is a business law specialist and one of the founders of Blenheim. As managing partner, Arjen directs the corporate team at Blenheim, where he supervises specialists in the fields of acquisitions, shareholder disputes, mergers, participations, investments and English-language transactions. He is an experienced dealmaker who has guided numerous entrepreneurs as they have sold their company. Arjen also founded Hunt Corporate Finance, where he and his team advise clients on the commercial dimension of transactions.

Are you looking to sell your company? Then Arjen has the experience you need to find the most promising buyer.

Commissioners and supervisors

In addition to being a seasoned acquisitions adviser, Arjen is also a consultant to commissioners and supervisors. In 2009, he was named supervisory director for the publicly traded equity firm of Van der Moolen Holding N.V. to bring order to their affairs. Based on his experience with Van der Moolen Holding, he wrote a bestselling handbook (in Dutch) for supervisory directors that has a place on the bookshelves of many commissioners and supervisors. Arjen is a guest lecturer in the Commissioner and Supervisor Programme at TIAS, the number one business school in the Netherlands.

Entrepreneurship

Besides being a lawyer at Blenheim, Arjen is also a successful entrepreneur. He was one of the founders of the brokerage startup Zecco, which merged with TradeKing before being sold to First Ally.

Experience in cross-border transactions between Germany and the Netherlands

Arjen studied German Corporate Law at Heidelberg University and has advised a number of cross-border transactions between Germany and the Netherlands. He helped shepherd the acquisition of the Dutch Emmtec Industry and Business Park to the German energy service provider GETEC, and advised POLIS Immobilien A.G. on its purchase of the Sanssouci Business Park in Potsdam, Germany.

Experience

In the last ten years, Arjen has helped conduct more than 200 M&A transactions. In principle, Arjen does not represent Dutch private equity parties but rather always takes the side of the entrepreneur who is selling (to private equity). In this context, Arjen is a highly experienced adviser who has completed transactions with most private equity funds in the Netherlands.

Management buy-outs

Arjen has a host of successful management buy-outs (MBOs) to his name. One recent MBO supervised by Arjen involved the management of Wibra, a large Dutch chain of discount stores, buying out the existing shareholder.

Selling a business to a competitor

In January 2022, Arjen advised the shareholders of Appical B.V. on the sale of their shares to the cloud software supplier Visma, an extremely experienced buyer with its own in-house transactions team. Arjen and his team advised the shareholders of Appical and successfully closed the deal.

Other positions

Among his other positions, Arjen is chairman of the advisory board of MKB Fonds N.V. and, as such, also a member of the investment committee of MKB Fonds N.V. This has given him experience in assessing the financial side of transactions and insight into the inner workings of private equity. He knows better than anyone else what to look out for when a businessperson is selling their company. But Arjen is also an active volunteer: he is a driver with the community bus service in his hometown of Laren, taking regular shifts behind the wheel.

Corporate lawyer

As a corporate lawyer, Arjen advises entrepreneurs on the sale of their business and on the purchase of other businesses, as well as on participation or investment in companies and on management buy-ins or buy-outs. And if a dispute between shareholders should arise, Arjen is happy to advise the shareholders on how to resolve it.

Ask Arjen Paardekooper a question directly

Articles by Arjen